Planning Commission Minutes 2016 07 14

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes July 14, 2016 Page 30 of 33 Proposed Site Plan The previous version had a larger courtyard between the residence and the building. Part of the feedback we had was that the building previously was pretty close to the property line on the east side, so we pushed the building back. It caused us to lose a functional courtyard, so it is now just an entryway to get to a stair and back door of the existing residence. It shifted the open space to Main Street, so now we have a lot of more space adjacent to the public sidewalk. Where the property line is, there is a porch element that comes out from the building. That is in line with the existing building to the south, and then back another 6' from that is the actual building line. We pushed the building back quite a ways from the property line. In the previous version, you can see how much closer the building was to the property line. It did give us a really nice courtyard but again, in responding to the comments that we heard from the neighbors and neighboring business, we felt it was cutting off their visual access to Main Street. We are able to create a better site plan that will be friendlier to the neighbors by pushing that back. One of the things happening in either version is that we have eliminated a curb cut that used to come back to the garage. There is another parallel parking space that gets created on the site here. We don't get credit for this space, but it is one more space downtown. Regarding parking in the back, we try to find as many parking spaces as we can. Land in Downtown Louisville is a precious resource and we have to use it as well as we can. I am all for mixing public and private uses if we can conserve land. One of the things we have done on other properties is to actually utilize sidewalks for the loading areas for handicapped space. My mom had a stroke seven years ago and we bought one of these vans with a ramp that comes out the side. It sticks out about 34 and often, we will park in one of these parallel parking spaces, put the ramp out onto the sidewalk, she gets out, and then the ramp goes in. For about 2 minutes, the ramp is out and then it's gone. It works quite well functionally because we do it all the time. In terms of conserving land downtown, we felt this was a good place to do it. You have approved a similar situation on 945 Front Street, where they are also utilizing a public sidewalk for part of their loading area. To meet the ADA requirements, you need a space that is 8' wide. The ramps and platforms that come out of vans don't take that space, but that gives you room to maneuver. On 945 Front, I think it only comes about halfway out into the sidewalk. The problem here is we can't really push the parking down. On the front, there is a space created between the property line, the public sidewalk, and the building. It is very ample for outdoor seating. We have tried to activate the public realm along the sidewalk. We think this building will be a good addition to Downtown. It doesn't take a lot of room to create activity along the edges of buildings and we think this can be another really vital place Downtown that will add to what everybody loves about Downtown now. We talked about the architectural concept of trying to use the traditional western storefront, false front fagade architecture, updated for a historic context. We have a small gable element that runs down South Street to relate to the gable roof on the house, splitting up the longer fagade with another false front element with the porch. We are trying to create these things with the architecture. The guidelines talk about the type of fenestration, windows, and doors and we comply with that as well as the building form itself. The garage is being removed so additional parking is available off the alley. On South Street, we have almost wide enough "curb to curb" to do angled parking. We would have to widen it just a little more to get the required clearances for firetrucks. But we think it is worth looking into and perhaps some of the parking money that goes into the fund can go to angled parking. It creates quite a few new spaces Downtown if it can be done. We have noticed that the lot behind the museum seems to be under-utilized. I don't think a lot of people know it is there. Having a new building here will get utilization of our parking. If you went through